What+is+'Coaching'?

 **__What is Coaching?__** //** 'Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we were never able to do.' Peter Senge **// **It is essential that 'coaching' is understood by schools and school leaders if it is to be a successful model of professional learning for teachers that results in an improvement of student outcomes. This page will explore how coaching is defined in an educational setting. It will explore the various definitions of coaching and what this work 'looks' and 'sounds' like in schools through the use of video links. This page will also explore what coaching IS NOT in schools.**

__** COACHING - A DEFINITION **__

** Coaching is teachers talking and acting in a purposeful way with the goal of continuously improving their teaching practice. A coach is a critical listener/observer who asks questions,makes observations and offers suggestions that help a teacher to reflect and grow and produce different decisions.

The ultimate goal of any coaching program is to institutionalise reflective practice and continuous improvement among staff as part of collaborative, collegial learning environments for the purpose of improving student achievement.

Teacher Coaching is a highly sophisticated form of school-based professional reflective practice. It is a series of conversations designed to assist teachers to extend their personal and professional learning an improve student achievement. (Julie Boyd in //School Based Professional// //Learning, Reflective Practice and Coaching 2000.//) ** **Coaching is........

· Job-embedded Professional Development that is on-going and sustained · Support for teachers (both individuals and groups) · Based on teacher and student needs as identified by multiple sources · A form of inquiry and reflection · Cooperative and collaborative · Building School Capacity · **** A means of improving school achievement

Coaching is NOT........

· Evaluative in nature; that is, coaches are not there to “judge” teachers’ performance · Administrative, with major role of handling paperwork and budgets, and ordering and organising materials · Serving as a teacher’s aide · Assessing students only · Data entry only · An instructional role (e.g. Teaching students with problems **

__**THE ROLE OF A COACH**__ **A coach is actually a mediator, one who figuratively stands between a person and his thinking to help him become more aware of what is going on inside his head. It is not enough for a person to behave in a certain way—what's important is the thinking that goes on behind the behavior. A large part of the role of a mediator is based on trust and rapport with the person being coached.**

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Cognitive Coaching is a supervisory/peer coaching model that capitalizes upon and enhances cognitive processes. Art Costa and Bob Garmston, the founders of Cognitive Coaching, define it as a set of strategies, a way of thinking and a way of working that invites self and others to shape and reshape their thinking and problem solving capacities. In other words, Cognitive Coaching enables people to modify their capacity to modify themselves. The metaphor of a stagecoach is one used to understand what a coach does—convey a valued person from where s/he is to where s/he wants to be.
 * __ Cognitive Coaching __ **


 * __For more information on Cognitive Coaching please go to the following web site link below;__**

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A Local Coaching Program__ ** **The T.O.T.A.L project (Teacher’s Observing Teaching and Learning) lead by Anne Robinson, Executive Coach in Loddon Mallee Region received Professional Leave and Leading School Fund money to conduct the T.O.T.A.L coach training in 2006-2007. Schools were invited to select a Leading Teacher to participate in the coach training. Schools were also required to invest money to buy TIME for the coach to be able to practice their coaching skills back at their school. The coaches spent 10 full days learning together (over 18 months). The training involved; coaching each other, observing each other coach and giving feedback using protocols. Anne the Executive Coach observed every coach and gave constructive feedback on the coach’s development. The Teaching and Learning Coaches were responsible for coaching individuals and teams of teachers in their schools. They were required to use video as a tool to “Look and Listen to the Learning”. They took part in “Structured Learning Walks” through classrooms and trialled the use of the “Lesson Study” process in their faculties and units. They participated in strategic planning each term, involving the Coach, Principal and Executive Coach. By the end of 2007, this program had successfully developed locally trained coaches who continued to work in their schools as school based coaches or became regional coaches who were based in a number of schools across the region.** **__If you would like further information on this project please feel free to email me on__** **gervasoni.jennifer.l@edumail.vic.gov.au**
 * __T.O.T.A.L Coaching Program - Sunraysia 2007 - 2008

**__The T.O.T.A.L Team 2006-2007__** From Front Left; Jennifer Gervasoni, Heather Crawley, Heather Birch, Robyn Gallagher, Donna Seipolt, Mary Gill, Anne Robinson. From Back Left; Craig Warne, Sandra Luitjes, Marie Therese O’Leary and Gregor Allen
 * __T.O.T.A.L Resources and Further Information__ **